Cream Puff Swans

Makes 15-20 Swans

Ingredients

For Dough

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
  • ½ tsp sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 5 large eggs

For Assembly

  • whipped cream (homemade or store-bought)

How-to

Make Dough, Pipe & Bake

  1. Preheat oven to 400°
  2. In a medium saucepan combine the water, butter, sugar and salt and bring to a rolling boil
  3. Remove from heat and add stir in flour, mixing until a ball forms
  4. Transfer the dough to a mixer and beat on medium-low speed until cool, about 5 minutes
  5. With the mixer on, add one egg at a time, waiting to add the next until the last is fully incorporated into batter. Beat mixture until shiny and smooth
  6. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Fill pastry bag half-full with the dough
  7. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
  8. For the bodies, pipe 15-20 mounds of dough, about 3" in diameter, leaving ample space in between (about 2" — the bodies will puff and get bigger in the oven)
  9. For the heads, pipe a small mound of dough, then continue in an "S" shape, ending the point with another small mound of dough
  10. Bake pastries for about 30 minutes or until golden-brown. Remove the tray of "heads" from the oven
  11. Poke small holes in the bottoms of the "bodies." Turn the oven off, but leave the bodies inside the cooling oven to dry out, about 20 minutes

To Assemble

  1. Remove the cooled bottoms from the oven and slice in half like a burger bun
  2. Take the top piece and slice in half down the middle, lengthwise (these will form the "wings")
  3. Fill the bottoms with whipped cream, add on "head" in the middle, propped upright
  4. Place the "wings" on either side of the "head"
  5. Serve immediately. These look gorgeous on a mirror to give the elusion of "swimming." If making ahead, make all components, then assemble right before serving